The Balloon Factory, by Alexander Frater

"Colonel" Cody was one of those magnificent men in their flying machines, and competed gloriously in the race that inspired the film of that name. Samuel Cody was a former American showman whose new frontier was the air. In his showbiz days, he put it about that he was "Buffalo Bill" Cody's son. The two did meet but his claim, like much in his early life, was a fib.